Industry Project Report on the Australian Private Health Fund Industry

Executive Summary
Private Health Insurance occupies a significant but ambiguous position within Australia's health care system. It is a voluntary facility for private funding of hospital care and ancillaries, sitting alongside a compulsory tax-financed public system (Medicare) that is available to all. It is also constrained by regulations designed to pursue similar non-discriminatory access objectives to those in the public system
Declining membership numbers, particularly among the young and healthy, has led to concerns about the longer term viability of private health insurance (Brisban…